Instincts of the Herd in Peace and WarTrotter, W. (Wilfred)
Science
Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War
Trotter, W. (Wilfred)
Collective behavior; Crowds; Social psychology; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
We saw that the resistive gain in motive what they lose in
adaptability; we may add that in a sense the unstable gain in
adaptability what they lose in motive. Thus we see society cleft by
the instinctive qualities of its members into two great classes, each
to a great extent possessing what the other lacks, and each falling
below the possibilities of human personality. The effect of the
gradual increase of the unstable in society can be seen to a certain
extent in history. We can watch it through the careers of the Jews and
of the Romans. At first, when the bulk of the citizens were of the
stable type, the nation was enterprising, energetic, indomitable, but
hard, inelastic, and fanatically convinced of its Divine mission. The
inevitable effect of the expansion of experience which followed success
was that development of the unstable and sceptical which ultimately
allowed the nation, no longer {60} believing in itself or its gods, to
become the almost passive prey of more stable peoples.
In regard to the question of the fundamental significance of the two
great mental types found in society, a tempting field for speculation
at once opens up, and many questions immediately arise for discussion.
Is, for example, the stable normal type naturally in some special
degree insensitive to experience, and if so, is such a quality inborn
or acquired? Again, may the characteristics of the members of this
class be the result of an experience relatively easily dealt with by
rationalization and exclusion? Then again, are the unstable naturally
hypersensitive to experience, or have they met with an experience
relatively difficult to assimilate? Into the discussion of such
questions we shall here make no attempt to enter, but shall limit
ourselves to reiterating that these two types divide society between
them, that they both must be regarded as seriously defective and as
evidence that civilization has not yet provided a medium in which the
average human mind can grow undeformed and to its full stature.
GREGARIOUSNESS AND THE FUTURE OF MAN.
Thus far we have attempted to apply biological conceptions to man and
society as they actually exist at present. We may now, very shortly,
inquire whether or not the same method can yield some hint as to the
course which human development will take in the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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